Hungarian President: Peace top priority

Creating and preserving peace must be made the topmost priority, President Katalin Novák told a meeting of the Bucharest Nine, the countries on NATO’s eastern flank, in Warsaw on Wednesday.

Once there is peace in Ukraine, the country should be given support in making it a “democratic and prosperous state”, the president said.

Novák noted Hungary’s large-scale humanitarian and medical aid to Ukraine, including accommodating people fleeing the war.

“The situation has made it clear since February 24, 2022, that each country must be able to defend itself,” the president said, adding that NATO was “clearly the framework for effective cooperation”. She said it was in the participants’ fundamental interest to strengthen NATO’s eastern flank, and Hungary “fully supports” those endeavours. EU members, especially those within the B9 should also enhance their own military capabilities, she added.

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Novák said she trusted that Sweden and Finland would soon become NATO members.

She said US President Joe Biden’s attending the meeting offered an excellent opportunity “to again confirm our joint commitment to peace”.

On another topic, Novák noted the importance of protecting the rights of minorities in Ukraine, and said “a country aspiring to be a European Union member should do a lot in that area”.

The Hungarian president noted that she had met the archbishop of Warsaw earlier in the day and visited the tomb of Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski who died in 1981. She called the late cardinal “our common hero in fighting Communism and the Soviets”, adding that he had also advocated “peace and carefulness”.

The meeting was addressed by Polish President Andrzej Duda, Klaus Johannis of Romania, Zuzana Caputova of Slovakia, Rumen Radev of Bulgaria, Egils Levits of Latvia, Gitanas Nauseda of Lithuania, and Alar Karis of Estonia, as well as Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala and Joe Biden, the president of the United States.

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Source: MTI